Schuster Colloquium - Prof Mark Lancaster - Is New Physics Lurking in the Magnetic Interaction of a Muon?
| Dates: | 5 December 2018 |
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| Times: | 15:00 - 16:00 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | Department of Physics and Astronomy |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public |
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The interaction of a muon's spin with a magnetic field defines its magnetic moment in terms of the gyromagnetic ratio, g. In the Dirac equation, g is exactly 2, but additional higher order QED, electroweak and strong interactions increase its value by ~ 0.1% such that g-2 is predicted to be: 0.0023318364(7). g of the electron is the most accurately predicted and measured quantity in physics and g of the muon is the most accurately measured quantity using a particle accelerator storage ring.
At present there exists a discrepancy between the measurement of the muon's g-2 (0.0023318418(13)) and the prediction with a significance of 3.6 standard deviations. Whether this is telling us that there is new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics e.g. that could explain the matter antimatter asymmetry of the universe or a statistical fluctuation will be resolved by a new experiment that has recently started taking data at Fermilab, USA. I will describe the history of this measurement and the new experiment and how we expect to achieve a precision of 0.14 parts per million on this exciting new measurement and so hopefully resolve whether the magnetic interaction of a muon is a harbinger of new physics.
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Rutherford Theatre
Schuster Building
Manchester
